Does anyone else think that the seats in the Octa are visually uninspiring and ridiculous looking? Specifically the stitching and upholsteries on top.

Overall, These trucks look great -- A+. Except the seat covers / upholstery on the seats. These are 200K vehicles. Ish.

Any owners care to comment? Are they better in person?

IDK - pretty big miss from JLR on these seats in my book. Seat frames are great. Seat technology is cool. And, worth nothing that regular Defender seat patterns are that great either but this is ... like something out of San Francisco MTA trains or a self driving airport shuttle concept van at CES. Really bad looking in photos to my eyes.

Sorry owners.

 

From what I can see in pics, I've always thought they give off a cool retrofuturism vibe. I don't hate them, but they certainly are a bit unusual/unexpected. And that's a win in my book.

 

completely agree - they look terrible!

 

I like the Burnt Sienna color for seat. I don't like the first edition seats.

 

I like the seat design itself. Wasn't sure on the first edition fabric but leather would look good with carbon fiber back.

 

Having personally seen the OCTA seats at the Los Angeles event last year in both leather and Ultrafabric with Kvadrat, I can say the appearance of the seat design is far better in person. It is a cool look, different and in no way looks cheap...especially on the seats with the carbon fiber. An Edition One with khaki in the combination of Ultrafabric/Kvadrat looked really good. The use of two textures, one being a woven type fabric, is becoming very popular in upper tier high end vehicles like Bentley.

The stitching pattern was very nicely done with it being positioned well in relation to the perforations, hopefully production vehicles have the same precision. The seat structure and padding was very supportive and comfortable for the 15 minutes or so we sat in an Edition One.

I do understand the comment that at the +/- $170,000 price point, the design of the seat covers might be considered too basic and uninspiring by some. With these seats being borrowed from the Range Rover Sport SV, it would have been nice to have a covering design more like the Sport SV’s but the OCTA doesn’t look horrendous by any means. And for OCTA in my opinion, the design does fit an off road, purpose built appearance.

The Burnt Sienna leather looked really good with the color being not only nice but it showed off the curves and stitching detail. Going by only photos, I personally think an all black leather would be rather boring with this design. Hands down, the majority feeling of those I talked to at the Los Angeles event was the material and texture combination of the khaki Ultrafabric/Kvadrat on the Faroe Green vehicle was the standout combination.

For my Edition One order I would have liked to have had a leather option other than black but that not being available, my selection of the khaki Ultrafabric/Kvadrat was made without any reservation. I have high hopes for the Ultrafabric as the leather on my 2024 Range Rover with 11,000 miles is not holding up as well as other leather seats I’ve had in the past.

 

I think they look silly from the back.

 

When I sat in the OCTA at Goodwood, I really didn't care for the design of the seat. I Personally think the lack of stitching just makes it look odd. Not that they're objectively bad seats (they're actually really good) but I'm used to fancy stitching and seaming patterns in a car at this price point and I agree that they just look... plain. I wouldn't say it looks cheap in person, and the quality is fantastic - the Semi-Aniline leather is the same thing you get in a Range Rover SV. They are comfortable, too, and offer good lateral support. The four Subpac transducers are interesting. They're basically fancy vibrators that allow you to "feel" the music. I didn't care for that at all when I tried it out, but totally understand why people would enjoy it.

I'd say my biggest issue with the seats other than the design, is the fact that many of the seat controls are now in the touchscreen. The seat controls on the side of the cushion only adjust the recline, forward/backwards and up/down. Lumbar, side bolster adjustments and massage settings are all in the touchscreen.

 

OCTA seats look generic, like a seat you would see on any commercial airplane. They should have consulted with whoever designed the excellent seats in my Golf R.

 

They look great in person and are pretty comfortable - personally though, I would have preferred more support and bolstering, like the RRS SV seats - especially at the price point. My other concern is how the side bolster is so lacking that mine was creased at delivery - which is why I had the vegan leather option on my last Defender (P400X) and it did not crease once in two years - but I really wanted leather this time.

Overall, its a distinctive design and a comfy seat - but falls slightly short of what one would expect for a $170K car.